Indexing problems Outlook - Windows 11

There are two issues with Outlook search after upgrading to Windows 11.

1. During upgrade to Windows 11 the search index gets deleted. It takes time for the index to get rebuilt, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/outlook-search-does-not-return-results-after-upgrade-to-windows-11-cc54dfee-ee78-4123-a9af-7986748052ef 
2. Starting with Windows 10 December updates and all Windows 11 versions there is a bug that even when indexing completes recent items are not showing in the search results, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/outlook-search-not-showing-recent-emails-after-windows-update-kb5008212-cc5345cf-8007-403a-bb23-f3818653c2df This is the main issue we are waiting on Windows fixes for. We will update this article with the fix updates as soon as that information is available.

Hello Gabriel,

Thank you for the update. I understand that things can go wrong with any system, updates, machinery, pretty much everything. I appreciate that Microsoft are working on the issue however the problem for my computer started after it updated to Windows 11 late November and by early December when I had exhausted all other avenues of online searching i put this problem on this forum.

The problem persisted until I uninstalled Windows 11 and reinstalled Windows 10 - my outlook file had to then index my file again, which it successfully did in approximately 4 hours. I can now search successfully for all items.

The frustrating part is that for over one month my computer system - that i rely on for work - simply did not function as it should and it appears from your post that the system still has bugs in it for the search function. One month is a long time for anyone to have a system problem. If the problem was identified and fixed in a reasonable time frame then i think everyone would accept this.

Thank you

Dean

I apologize for the frustration and issue Dean. Thank you for sharing your experience and feedback. I am making sure this issue and its impact are shared to the Product Teams. Both Teams are actively working on this to fix the near-term problem and also to prevent this from happening again in the future. I know that is not much solace in what you had to go through, but I assure you the teams see the feedback and they are working hard to prevent this happening again. We have to do better, and we will use this as a prime example of something we missed and where to improve.

As soon as we know the issue is fixed by Windows I'll update our Known Issue article with that status, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/outlook-search-not-showing-recent-emails-after-windows-update-kb5008212-cc5345cf-8007-403a-bb23-f3818653c2df.

a reinstallation will solve this issue just for a limit time, if micrsoft does'nt fix it. The main issue based upon the indexing process, who maybe blocks or do everything other with outlook. This is not especially an windows 11 issue - i had experienced similar issues in several Windows 10 environment's.
In Windows 11, microsoft had extend the indexing and the usage of them. It seems, that the interlock between outlooks database files and the indexing service should be the root of the issue. If you remove outlook from the index service (in the german windows11 : systemsteuerung->alle systemelemente->indexoptionen->indizierte Orte), immediately, the issue is gone. The backsite of the of the coin is, that the search process in outlook, will be quite slower.
Generaly, microsoft needs to fix it finaly.

A windows reinstallation is not required. A new profile of the mail-accounts will not solve the issue. A temporary solution could be drop the index content. This helps not finaly for alonger term.

I will live with the search penalty in outlook, as long as microsoft had fixed them.

I have had the same issue with the update in Windows 11 for a month or two now and have had to manually go each day into Control Panel, System Security, Windows Tools, Services, scroll to Windows Search and right click to restart it and then the indexing continues. I had already done everything in the prior notes and rebuilding etc but this is the only thing that works to get it started again when I am still in outlook.